The movie Independence Day (1996) had a brutal publicity campaign that made it one of the highest grossing of the year.
It’s been a long time since it was released Independence Day in 1996, the film starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman Y Jeff Goldblum, which showed how humanity had to fight an alien attack and which went on to raise more than 817 million dollars. Many may not remember, but the promotion was brutal at a time when the internet was practically non-existent at the domestic level. But if there is an iconic scene from the movie, it is certainly when the alien spacecraft blows up the White House. But the FOX film studio didn’t want that to hit theaters.
In a recent interview, as explained by the director of Independence Day, Roland Emmerich, the producer Dean Devlin and the star Jeff Goldblum:
“One of the things we had from the beginning was the idea of blowing up the White House in a television commercial.”. Dijo Devlin. “It was very controversial”. Roland Emmerich added. “I had the idea that the announcement is: July 2, you see the shadows. On July 3, you have the fire coming in. Finally, you see the 4th of July and the White House explodes. It was such a simple concept and FOX hated that. “
“You can’t blow up the White House in a TV ad”. Devlin said. They also wanted to remove her from the film because on April 19, 1995 in Oklahoma CityAnti-government extremists detonated an explosive in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people. So studio executives felt that the scene could be seen as insensitive. “And I said: Yes, but that was not done by aliens”. Devlin stated.
The movie studio decided to keep blasting the White House.
Roland Emmerich went on to explain how they offered to test the Independence Day television ad twice, once with the White House scene and once without the scene. The reaction of the people was so positive that in the end they decided to keep that moment of the movie and added it in the trailer for Super Bowl XXX in 1996. Something that Emmerich called: “A very clever move.”
Jeff Goldblum recalled his reaction when he saw the trailer for Independence Day for the first time at a party. “I remember thinking: That’s my movie. I’m on it. Wow, how about that! I don’t think he was aware of anything they were thinking or going to do. That was something exciting. “
“We were an unknown film until that moment.” Emmerich said. “From then on, everyone talked about Independence Day.”
